Here is my first discovery of a match-up of a spectacular Kiowa single trailer feather war bonnet from the Witte Museum (San Antonio, Texas) with it's historic field photographs. The Museum staff has erroneusly attributed this bonnet to the Comanche.
But my short research prooves that this war bonnet features in a number of field photographs of the Kiowa man called Gaapiatan (Feathered Lance or Crow Feathered Lance, c.1860 — 1931), a whipman in Black Legs society and a principal chief of Kiowas after the death of Lone Wolf in 1879. The bonnet has a very recognizable browband design and a beaded side flap for ermine tubes.
.jpg "Feathered Lance aka Gaapiatan, 1892-93")
.jpg "Feathered Lance aka Gaapiatan, 1892-93, detail")
